University Libraries have announced the 2006 undergraduate and graduate-student winners of the annual Neureuther Student Book Collection Essay Competition. Prizes are $1,000 for first place and $500 for second.
Graduate category, first-place winner: Ryan Shirey, Ph.D. candidate in English literature in Arts & Sciences.
In his entry, “The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Collector of Scottish Books,” Shirey explained how he came to write his dissertation on the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s-1940s.
He counters the argument that Scottish literary history is fragmented, adding that “the plucking of truth from the fragments of the past is at the heart of reading and collecting itself.”
Second place: Benjamin Cawthra, Ph.D. candidate in history in Arts & Sciences.
Cawthra entered “The Improvising Image: A Jazz Photography Collection.”
Related to his dissertation on the meaning of jazz images in post-World War II American culture, Cawthra’s collection of books of jazz photographs has led him to interview several photographers and has given him a deeper understanding of the lives behind the images.
Undergraduate category, first place: Jennifer Feder, senior in mathematics in Arts & Sciences.
Feder submitted “Women’s Wisdom: Sharing Her Voice,” which discusses her collection of memoirs and autobiographies by women.
These stories, often about bridging cultural barriers and overcoming hardships, help Feder understand her life in a larger context and inspire her to action.
Second place: Wendy Xin, pursuing a double major in English literature and in finance and marketing in the Olin School of Business.
Xin entered “The Kindred Spirits of My Dusty Upper Shelf,” an essay about her collection of children’s literature.
As a child, these books expanded her world. Today, she still considers them a “refuge for peace and for counsel.”
The winning essays can be found online at library.wustl.edu/collections/winners.html.
The competition is made possible by an endowment from Carl Neureuther, a 1940 WUSTL graduate who sought to encourage University students to read for pleasure throughout their lives. His endowment also funds University Libraries’ Popular Literature Collection.